West End Games Star Wars

Hambone kicks things off with a quick introduction (00:17). The guys get right to it and talk about a programing board game called Colt Express that they played the previous night (01:20).

The focus of the episode is West End Games’ Star Wars RPG (06:08). Discussion starts with how completely Star Wars has penetrated popular culture (06:12) and Hambone gives a quick history of the game (06:48). Stu breaks explains how the RPG kept Star Wars alive. (07:40). The Ewok Movie comes up (08:20). Stu theorizes that the initial appeal of the Star Wars RPG laid in the fact that the books gave you access to more material from the movies (09:28).

Stu explains the basics of the system (10:31) and explains how the game gave birth to the Expanded Universe (11:13). Timothy Zahn’s Thrawn Trilogy comes up (11:53) and Stu explains how those books paved the way to the larger Star Wars’ modern pop culture explosion (12:37). The Science Fiction Book Club comes up (13:22). Hambone runs through some of the publications dates and cover art for the various editions of the rules (13:50) and Stu voices his disappointment in the design and illustration in the third edition (14:18).

Conversation turns to the game’s approach to universe building (15:00). They discuss adventure modules, the Kathol Rift campaign (16:38) and the Galaxy Guides, which brings the guys to the topic of toys (17:27) and the joy of weird aliens. There is the inevitable comparison to Star Trek (19:57) and that segues to a quick chat about angry Star Wars fans (20:54) and inclusivity (23:43). Stu talks about his up and down relationship with Star Wars (25:00).

Hambone shifts the gears out of the heavy stuff to talk about how the game handles Jedi (26:30) and a digression into miniature play wraps things up (28:00).

Finally, we end on a happy note, as Hambone is excited that his copy of the Big Trouble in Little China board game finally arrived (29:00)

The guys say their good-byes (31:13).

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Correction: Stu has a tick and keeps calling it the Star Wars Extended Universe. While that word usage isn’t wrong, the moniker is actually the Star Wars Expanded Universe.